South Africa: Wood market sector round-up

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The decking market is steady but there is no strong demand and some customers are preferring local eucalyptus and pine rather than imported species.

Domestic pine mills are still building up stock levels there have been instances of price discounting. In the current market the plan to raise prices has been postponed.

The American hardwood market has been reasonably steady with most of the demand being for white oak with some demand also for ash.

There has been some movement of European beech and douglas fir but the strong Euro is holding back sales.

The board market is under pressure. PG Bison (manufacturer of wood-based panel products founded in 1987 and based in Sandton, South Africa) has commissioned their new plant which has added 13,000 sq.m per day to their overall production. They have also installed a high gloss line.

The market for African species is also patchy, mainly due to erratic delivery problems. There have been reports of Zambian authorities halting the export of logs brought into the country from DRC for onward shipment to mainly China. The problem appears to be that Zambia does not allow log exports and the process for transshipment is not clear. Analysts write it is there could be as much as 45,000 cu.m held up in Zambia.

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